


Bullets

by quinnovative



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Big Sister Alex Danvers, Big Sister Maggie Sawyer, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Hurt Kara Danvers, Hurt/Comfort, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Sanvers - Freeform, also i might change the title if i can think of something half decent, i'll finish tagging this properly later, supercorp is hinted if you squint sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 05:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11373729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quinnovative/pseuds/quinnovative
Summary: "Supergirl falls.Supergirl is not supposed to fall. Not from alien hits or brick walls, and certainly not from bullets.But she does.Her body tilts, bends as she stumbles, feet suddenly heavy and numbing. Her eyes squint, a hand raising to touch her head. The other drops to her abdomen, fills with thick blood. She coughs, shakes, the strain is too great for her weakening muscles and bones and joints; and then, she falls.She falls and they realize the bullet aimed at Alex was meant for Kara the whole time."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This came from two prompts sent to me on ff.net: Kara saves Alex's life but is really hurt in return / Lillian figures the best way to ensure Supergirl gets hit by a Kryptonite bullet is to aim it at someone she's certain to step in front of to protect (Alex).
> 
> Quick note on the context I've constructed for the fic- Lena knows Kara's Supergirl (and that the DEO/Alex/Maggie know this, too). Also, Lena's friends with the superfriends... she's a newbie superfriend, because she's lovely and a good person and super smart and she deserves better... okay cool, thanks. :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy it and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Supergirl falls.

Supergirl is not supposed to fall. Not from alien hits or brick walls, and certainly not from bullets.

But she does.

Her body tilts, bends as she stumbles, feet suddenly heavy and numbing. Her eyes squint, a hand raising to touch her head. The other drops to her abdomen, fills with thick blood. She coughs, shakes, the strain is too great for her weakening muscles and bones and joints; and then, she falls.

She falls and they realize the bullet aimed at Alex was meant for Kara the whole time.

“ _Kara!”_ Alex screams, scrambling off the ground. She pushes up on her hands against the slick pavement as thunder storms overhead.

Kara’s just feet away but it feels like an infinity as lighting strikes in the distance and the DEO fights off the remaining CADMUS agents—distractions from their real mission, the DEO is realizing; as the screams of citizens echo in Alex’s ear, a harrowing, distraught sound; as Kara whimpers and curls on her side, and panic thumps inside Alex, pushes her legs forward until she’s dropping beside her sister.

“Kara, hey hey hey Kara, look at me,” Alex says, kneeling across the blonde and patting her cheek, trying to get those blue eyes to open again.

A watery gargle bubbles from Kara’s mouth and she leans over, spitting up blood. “ _Help!”_ Alex screams, moving to face the pack of DEO vans. “Supergirl’s down, we need a medevac stat!”

She turns back to Kara where the red has mingled with the crimson puddle clotting on the street. “ _Damn it,”_ she murmurs as she yanks off her jacket and pushes it against Kara’s stomach.

The blonde writhes under the pressure, eyes closed, muttering incoherent words as tears streak her cheeks. “You shouldn’t have done that,” Alex says, cries choke through her words. “You shouldn’t have stepped in front of that bullet, Kara.”

Water sprays Alex’s back and she turns around, sees boots splashing through puddles as they rush over. The medics flood her vision, drown out Kara’s mumbled slur of a response, push Alex away and tug Kara from her grasp.

Three hours ago and they were at Alex and Maggie’s apartment, cleaning up and flipping through TV channels, trying to find ways to waste time before Maggie’s last few hours of the work week would finish.

Three hours ago and Alex’s hands were full of blankets, not blood; and Kara’s abdomen did not have a hole in it.

Three hours ago they got a call to come in to the DEO. A quick fight, easy, no longer than half an hour—she can still hear the voice resounding in her head. Supergirl wasn’t even supposed to be there, she was supposed to be home, she was supposed to let Alex handle it, but she tagged along anyway and Alex had let her and now they’re here and Kara is bleeding out and Alex somehow finds that she’s entered a vehicle and they’ve arrived at the DEO and she can’t breathe.

“Agent Danvers, let’s go!” Someone yells, their voice is muffled and cloudy in her head but it forces her to blink and then it forces her to pull air back into her lungs. She’s out of the van in a second, following behind her sister’s stretcher three strides later, counting the steps until she’s focused on Kara.

Kara is the only thing that matters right now.

/

“Hey, babe,” Maggie calls, closing the door behind her and dropping her bag on the counter. “Alex?” she says as she steps further into the apartment, glances around the empty room and takes in the lack of response despite the TV playing in the background.

“Kara?” she tries, peering into the other rooms before returning back to the living area. She tugs out her phone and double checks Alex’s texts from earlier. At 4:38 PM Alex had said that she and Kara were at the apartment and would be hanging out there until Maggie got home from work, asking what she wanted for dinner.

Maggie calls Alex and is met with voicemail. A sinking feeling of dread knots in her stomach, beginning to curl over the confusion she’d first experienced.

“…Supergirl has not been spotted since just a few hours earlier when…” Maggie spins around at the sound of the newscaster’s words. She turns just in time to catch footage of the fight when it cuts to a grainy cellphone video zooming in on Supergirl.

Maggie’s phone slips from her hand when a shadowed figure points a gun at a DEO agent, at _Alex_ Maggie realizes, and the detective’s frozen in place, fingers curling tightly into her palm and ears falling deaf to the commentary as the scene plays out. The trigger is pulled and Maggie’s certain she’s about to witness the murder of her _fiancée_ when a blur of blue and red tears across the screen, takes the bullet instead.

Maggie breaks into a smile, drops her head into her hands with a breathy laugh of relief that Kara was there. That she’s bulletproof and fast enough to break the sound barrier. She picks up her phone to text Alex, tell her to hurry home from the mess of paperwork she’s sure accumulated at the DEO.

“…What happens next is interesting. Instead of reflecting the bullet, we see Supergirl fall, bleeding…”

Maggie’s head snaps back up, relief plummeting into guilt and worry. Kara slips, sinks into blood and Alex rushes toward her, kneels over Supergirl and the camera shakes and shuts off once Kara’s out of view.

A vibration drags Maggie’s attention away from the TV now airing commercials as if she didn’t just see two of the most important people in her life skirt around death, as if she didn’t just see a woman who’s become a little sister to her _take a bullet_ when she’s supposed to be invincible. As if the apartment’s not empty and Maggie’s head is still reeling around the image of Kara bleeding out onto the street.

The vibrations are incessant, shaking in her palm and Maggie finally looks down. James’ name flashes across the screen of her phone.

“Maggie, there’s been—“

“What the hell is going on, James? Just cut to it, because a minute ago I walked into an empty apartment and saw my fiancée almost die on the news before I see Kara in a puddle of her own blood. So honestly James, what the hell happened?”

“We don’t know for sure, Maggie. It all--”

Maggie huffs and drags a hand through her hair. “Alex. Is she okay?”

“Physically, yes.”

“And Kara?”

“I think you should come in.”

Maggie’s already in the elevator, nearing the ground floor when he says it.

/

She speeds on her way over and blows through a stop sign in the parking lot, slams her car door as she gets out. Deep in the muscles of her legs something twitches, drives her into a jog through the parking garage and into the elevator.

She taps her thighs, groaning as the lift meanders up the floors—stops to let people on, let them off. She throws her head back against the wall when it’s finally empty again.

She’s pissed at Alex for not calling. For not telling her she was going, for not saying she was okay, for not letting Maggie know that Kara was in bad shape because _damn it,_ Maggie cares about Kara, too.

The doors crack open and Maggie shoves through them, jamming her hands in her pockets as she walks the too familiar route to the med floor.

The speech she practices in her head screeches to a halt when she sees Alex bent over a tablet, knees pulled forward to her chest in the chair. She looks so small, like the space is swallowing her up.

“Al?” Maggie whispers softly. “I heard what happened.”

Alex uncurls herself, turns to Maggie with a smile offsetting the tear tracks so evident beneath her red rimmed eyes.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Alex says, brows raised and lips still quirked upward.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Maggie deadpans, frustration leaking back in.  

“I mean, surgery was quick. It was easy. The bullet looked a bit strange, it was embedded with kryptonite—that’s how it penetrated her skin. The scans aren’t functioning, something about the metal and Kara’s powers is screwing with the machines, but she’s been under the sunlamps and she’s talking, says she feels fine—good even. They all say she’s okay,” Alex tilts her head toward the operating room Kara had previously occupied.

Maggie rubs her forehead where a headache begins to form. “So, Kara’s fine?”

Alex nods.

“And you’re okay?”

Alex nods again, looking up at Maggie with those bright brown eyes.

“Oh thank god,” Maggie murmurs, pulls Alex into a hug, holds her close. “I was so worried, when I got home, I saw…” she swallows and blinks. “I saw it on the news I thought you were going to die, but then Kara saved you and I felt so much relief until the video continued and then Kara…” Maggie sniffles, buries her head into Alex’s shoulder. “Kara was _bleeding_ and that was so much scarier than I ever thought it would be.”

“I know,” Alex soothes, runs a hand over Maggie’s hair. “I know, but she’s okay. We’re all okay.”

Maggie nods, wipes her cheeks.

“Kar still wants to have movie night if you’re up for it? It’ll be good that way, so I can keep an eye on her tonight and make sure everything’s okay. She convinced J’onn to let her out now if she takes a sunlamp to the apartment with her.”

Maggie laughs. “Sounds good.”

“Perfect,” Alex grins. “Let’s go grab Kara.”

/

After another hour under the newly portable sunlamp while the trio eats, Kara’s eyes droop a little as she pushes her plate away. She eats half as much as usual, which is still more than double what Alex can, before resting her cheek in her palm.

“Done?” Alex asks and Kara nods. “How about you go hop in the shower real quick? Maggie and I will clean up and get the TV ready.”

“Okay,” Kara says through a yawn, shivering slightly as she stands.

They get the leftover pizza put away and the table wiped down, TV set up and blankets pulled out, are spending time snuggled on the couch waiting, when Maggie’s phone rings.

She looks down. “It’s work. I’ll be right back, I have to take this,” she says apologetically before standing.

“Yeah, of course. I’m gonna go change into something more comfortable,” Alex says, getting up with Maggie and kissing her cheek before the detective disappears outside the door for a moment.

When Maggie comes back a few minutes later, Alex is emerging from the bedroom, clad in sweatpants and a t-shirt, glasses on. Maggie smiles, but her expression falls when she sees Alex look underneath a blanket before dropping it, huffing.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you know where Kara’s phone is?” Alex asks. “It rang _six_ times while you were outside.”

Maggie shakes her head, joins in the search just as the ringtone goes off again and Alex fishes the phone from between two couch cushions.

Alex face contorts into confusion. “ _Lena Luthor?”_

Maggie’s brows jump up. “Nuh-uh.”

Alex laughs and shrugs. “I’ll see what’s so pressing. Would you mind checking on Kara, the water went off a few minutes ago but I haven’t heard anything since then.”

Maggie nods. “Sure thing, but you gotta tell me what Luthor wants.”

“Deal,” Alex says as she picks up the phone and Maggie steps away.

“Kara?” Lena’s voice floods through the line, Alex has never heard it this way—free and unrestrained as it lilts with relief. “Kara, thank god you’re okay.”

“This is Alex, actually.”

Lena stomach turns, sickening with worry. “Listen, you need to trust me right now. I was on an international flight and just saw the news now that I’ve landed. Kara’s in danger. The bullet my mother used isn’t normal and it could kill Kara.”

“She’s fine, it’s been surgically removed already and she spent time under the sunlamps. She—“

“No!” Lena’s voice is sharp, the yelp of frightened animal. “The sunlamps make it worse, the UV rays service as a catalyst for the chemical reaction creating the toxin. The bullet spread an infection, think…umm, like sepsis, maybe? I—it’s not exact—it was Lex’s design, I haven’t heard of it in years but you need to get Kara back to the DEO. I’ll meet you there with the information I can gather. If Kara’s still feeling well, we’re not too late; but once she experiences symptoms, it gets risky and her state will rapidly deteriorate if the bullet’s anything similar to what Lex’s notes relayed. You need to—“

“Alex!” Maggie’s voice yells from the bathroom and Alex freezes, wrenched between Lena’s news and the worry loudening Maggie’s words—feels like she’s strung between and watching from the outside. It’s the sudden sharpness in Maggie that pulls her to the reality of their apartment, paired with Lena’s information that spikes adrenaline in her veins. Maggie calls out again. _“_ You need to get in here, something’s wrong.”

Alex feels tears prick in her eyes with dread and exhaustion. She turns toward the bathroom and keeps Lena on the line. “DEO. Thirty minutes.”

Lena’s words are a watery mess. “We have to be faster than that. We— she doesn’t have much time, Alex.”

Alex’s heart thunders.

Maggie screams again. _“Alex, hurry!”_


	2. Chapter 2

"Fifteen minutes." Alex says, hangs up.

She flings open the door and steps in.

"Shit, what happened?" she asks, eyes flicking toward Maggie but the detective only throws a painful look over her shoulder, a desperate shrug.

"She wasn't answering so I came in and she was stumbling. I thought she was going to fall, so I had her sit," Maggie says. "She's shaking so badly, Al."

Kara moans, back pressed up against the tub. She's in only her bra and underwear, a shirt fallen from her fingers sits at her hip and drapes across her stomach, her pajama shorts are still folded on the counter. Her head is in her hands, heels of her palms digging against her eyes and sweat drenches her already soaked hairline.

She raises her head to look at Alex, skull tilting backward and she shifts with a wince so she's leaning against the wall, labored breathing filling the room with the strained sound.

"Kara," Alex says, dropping beside Maggie where they kneel in front of the blonde, where she tries to looks at them through hazy blue—eyes that blink and flit unfocused. "Hey, Kara, what's wrong?" Alex asks, keeps her hands gentle even though her heart pounds and she brushes Kara's hair back.

"Jesus Christ, Kar, you're burning up."

The blonde flinches, squeezing her eyes closed, pulling a leg up toward her stomach and groaning, dipping an arm over her abdomen.

Alex sends a worried glance over at Maggie, is met with the same confusion she feels, reflecting in her fiancée's eyes.

The agent inches closer, reaches out to move the shirt and examine Kara's stomach, where her pain seems to be spiraling from. Her fingers brush Kara's skin and the sound that bursts from her lips is something of a howl and shriek, striking in the silence between her heavy breaths. Her head slams back against the wall, sends the structure shaking as her scream falls to a watery whimper and she doubles over, curling into herself.

Alex pulls back in reflex, nearly knocking Maggie over in her haste. "I'm sorry. Shit, Kara, I'm so sorry."

Maggie sees tears in Alex's eyes, rubs her back as they look at Kara.

"Hurts," she murmurs, eyes closed, blonde hair shoved up behind her against the wall as she fights a losing battle to catch her breath.

Alex wipes her eyes. "Where, Kar? Can you tell me where it hurts?"

Kara shakes her head, colors burst behind her closed eyes, spiraling hues that bolt around her head. "Where it was," Kara murmurs, face contorting in pain.

"Where what was?" Alex asks and Kara turns her head away where it dips against the wall. "Hey, Kara, I need you to focus on me. We're going to get you some help."

"Bullet," Kara answers through a wheezing breath.

"We need to get the DEO," Alex says, leaning toward Maggie. "Lena has an idea about what's going on."

"L-Lena?" Kara murmurs and her eyes are half lidded, head falling to the side.

"Yeah, sweetheart. Lena," Alex answers.

" 's nice," Her eyelids close further.

"This might hurt, Kara, but we've got to get you up, okay?"

Alex's voice is soft and soothing but it reaches Kara like sound underwater as heat flushes her face, droplets of sweat budding at her hairline.

Alex is saying something again but Kara can't hear over the ringing in her ears, the nausea churning in her stomach.

"I don't feel good, Alex, I don't feel good," she murmurs, words rapid and slurring together through burning lips.

The ache radiate outwards, has its muscles in its grasps when her stomach cramps, seizing her control away. Everything lurches, emptying itself. Blood and bile bubbles forward and outward, makes a mess of her bare skin as her surroundings come back into focus with a dizzying suddenness.

"Sorry, I'm sorry, I—I—" Another wave of it washes over her, doubles her in half with the power of the heaves that take her body from her as she vomits.

"Shh, it's okay, sweet girl, don't worry." Alex doesn't even flinch as she places a hand on Kara's shoulder, leaves it there for a second to check Kara's reaction to touch before she eases the blonde out of her curled position, lays her head back against the rim of the tub and slides a towel beneath it.

She soaks another towel in warm water and wipes Kara down, the blonde shivers violently, teeth chattering. She shifts in and out of consciousness as Alex works quickly.

"Sorry. S-s-sor-sorry. I'm—"

"Kara, you're sick, don't apologize. Just let us take care of you."

The best Kara can muster is a soft cry in response and Alex leans forward, brushes Kara's cheek as she dries her off. "Just hang on a little longer, sis."

"There we go," Alex says, when she's finished pulling a t shirt over her little sister's head. Kara slumps back against the wall when Alex releases her, just as Maggie steps in.

"J'onn's on his way. Lena called again, she's already at the DEO and spoke to him."

Alex nods, glances at Kara then back to Maggie. "We need to go now. As soon as J'onn has Kara we'll drive."

"Alex, Al-Alex," Kara's tongue stumbles over her sister's name, heavy in her mouth as she flicks her eyes toward Alex and keeps them there. She heaves in another breath. "Alex, it's get—getting hard to control the-them."

She's pressing her hand against her face again while the other refuses to leave her abdomen.

"Your powers?" Alex asks.

Kara nods, quivering against the wall. She reaches out to grip the counter and turns it to dust. Another sharp cry presses forward from the back of her throat. "I don't w—want to hur—hurt you," Kara murmurs and she's sobbing now—hot tears burning down her cheeks, fighting with the spasms of her lungs. "G—go, you h—have to go, before I can't. I can't, Alex, I can't."

"I'm not going anywhere, Kara," Alex says, taking a step closer. Her voice is smooth and low and Kara latches on to it.

"We're staying, Little Danvers." Maggie presses forward at Alex's side.

Kara cries and doubles over, she wants to touch them, wants to hug them but she can't because her body is a prison and a traitor and she cannot trust the cells inside her.

The window breaks open from the frame and J'onn calls out to Alex and Maggie. Kara's entire body vibrates with the strength of her trembling, the edge of her hands are a blur in the harsh bathroom light.

The shower curtain bursts into flames and singes and Supergirl falls for the second time that day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fyi, creative liberties have been taken with some of the science/medicine in this chapter.

"Kara's stabilized for the time being, but it's alarmingly temporarily and they had to use kryptonite to insert an IV and control her powers. We're going to need a solution fast. Here's everything I was able to find out."

Lena's opening Alex's door and thrusting papers into her hands before the woman's even stepped away from the wheel. "My initial observations weren't exactly correct, but here's what I know now: the bullet releases a synthesized bacteria—Lex couldn't figure out how to transfer the genome correctly and that's why it always failed, but one of Lillian's scientists discovered a frameshift mutation rendering the cell useless, and  _apparently_ the bastard corrected it, too."

Alex shifts out of the car and Maggie follows, falling in step with Lena as they get into the DEO, begin picking up their pace as they get closer to the med wing.

"So, I went through the reports and there's something—"

"Lena, wait." Alex pauses, reaches out from the woman's shoulder. She tilts her head down the hall. "Kara's this way."

"Oh, I wasn't—I don't think she wants to see me right now and there's still data to go through, I—"

" _This way_ , Luthor," Alex bumps her this time, leaving no room for disagreement. "We're checking on Kara and then we're fixing this."

Lena lets Alex turn her by the shoulders and follows, Maggie smirks.

/

"Hey, Kar," Alex says softly, stroking blonde hair gently and easing herself onto the mattress beside Kara, taking advantage of the five minutes of privacy the doctors allowed Alex.

"Alex," Kara mumbles, eyelids parting just barely.

"Yeah, hi. How're you feeling?"

Her response is muffled by the hospital bed pillow as Kara turns, buries her face in the fabric with a cry, hand snaking around her abdomen again.

"Okay, so not good," Alex says and rubs Kara's back.

"A little better though," Kara mumbles as she shifts positions, turning into Alex's stomach and wrapping her arms around her sister's middle, pressing her head into Alex's side. Alex immediately receives her, pulling Kara closer. "You're still burning up," Alex says, tucking a strand of damp hair behind Kara's ear.

"Stomach hurts," Kara says, nestles closer to Alex. "And 'm so tired."

Alex hums sympathetically, runs a hand over Kara's side, lightly massages the parts of Kara's abdomen she can reach. "Maggie, can you grab me a wet washcloth?"

The detective nods, slipping around Lena where she stands, fidgeting as she watches the scene and guilt pangs in her chest.

"Maggie's 'ere?" Kara asks as Alex takes the towel, gently wipes Kara's forehead.

"Yep."

"Right here, Little Danvers," Maggie says, rubbing Kara's back. "You look a bit better."

"Yeah," Alex agrees, looks up at Lena. "Do you know how long the IV's been in?"

"Since she arrived, so approximately twenty minutes. They had to—"

"Wait, 's that Lena?" Kara slurs, trying to sit up and pull her eyes open against fatigue. She groans at the sudden movement and sinks back down.

"Yes," Maggie answers, helping Kara straighten. "And she's scared you're mad at her, because her mom shot you," she adds with a pretend whisper, sending her gaze at Lena.

Maggie's attempts to help Kara fail as the blonde sags against the detective's side, eyes dipping open and closed as she fights the fatigue tugging at her body like a weight. "Lena, your mom's an asshole, you're not," Kara murmurs. "She's evil," the blonde says, eyes shutting and words slowing. "But you're… you're perfect, Lena, and… and s-smart and good and… and…"

"Okay, what's she on?" Alex asks, putting an end to Kara's sleepy mumble as she passes out, half on top of Maggie. "She's looking a little better, but she sounds like she's a mess and she still feels sick."

"The IV just has fluids in it," Lena answers, "I was here when the doctors hooked her up."

"Maybe it's flushing out whatever the bullet brought in?" Maggie suggests.

Lena shakes her head. "That seems too easy, but they did have to use kryptonite as I mentioned early, a large amount at first, to put in the IV and to get control of her powers. Which means a decent portion is still running through her system, which could explain why she still doesn't feel well."

Alex nods, running her fingers through Kara's hair. "Maybe. We need to run more tests, check it out." She looks down at her sister. "I hate to leave Kara alone though. Maybe we can go over some of the files in here?"

Maggie shakes her head. "You two need a real lab so you can work as efficiently as possible. I'll stay with her. You guys go."

"Are you sure?"

Maggie nods, nudging Alex upward. "I don't trust this moment of calm. Go."

"Call me, for anything."

"I will. Now, go, I'm serious."

Alex squeezes her hand and presses a kiss to Kara's head. "Thank you," she tells Maggie then turns toward the door. "Come on, Luthor, Winn's going to meet us there."

/

"Hopeless. This is absolutely hopeless," Winn says four hours later, dropping his head into his hands in front of his computer screen. "All these files are encrypted."

Lena turns around. "What do you mean? We got through every set before."

"We're not getting through this time. It'll take days—weeks, even—to get into these documents. They're different."

"They're the most important ones, we need them!" Alex says. "If there's an antibiotic, it'll be there. Winn, I swear to god, we  _need_ those files, because none of these tests are coming back conclusive."

"What's wrong with the tests?" Lena asks.

"I can't ID this bacteria as even close to anything I've literally ever seen on this planet, I have no idea where parts of these genomes came from because what I'm seeing can't be right, some of these samples must have been contaminated, some look like they've been crossed with Kara's samples. It's a mess and I keep seeing Kryptonian cells and I'm trying again on this last petri dish but it's still got a minute or two and—" Alex's phone rings. "Shit, that's Maggie. Winn, can you pass me it."

"Hey," she answers.

"Alex, you need to get down here."

"What's wrong?" Alex asks, already out of the lab and racing down the hall, pulling away from the phone briefly to tell Lena and Winn where she's going.

"Kara's unconscious and they can't get her to wake up, she-"

Alex steps into the room and Maggie drops the call.

A flurry of doctors rush around the room. Machines howl and beep. "How did it happen?"

"I don't know, she seemed fine. I've been here the whole time."

"Kara," Alex turns toward her sister, leg shaking nervously as she stands near the bed. "Kara, come on."

The blonde's eyes part, she bolts up and screams. Her gaze is glossy and her whole body trembles.

"Fever's increasing!"

"Heart rate up!"

Alex bites her lip, bounces her leg harder.

The room spins and Kara's voice rings in her ears.

"Showing signs of hypercytokinemia!"

"We need to stop the hyperventilation!"

Kara collapses back down, curls into herself, choking on breath.

A stream of Kryptonese words breaks from her lips, in between sobs.

Alex pushes through doctors, grabs Kara's hand. "It's okay, Kara, it's okay. Just breathe. Just use your damn lungs, come on, Kara."

Frantic blue eyes fall on her own.

Keeping her fingers entwined and her gaze trained on her sister, Alex calls out. "Maggie, I thought you said she'd been doing fine earlier, getting better. What changed? Did they do anything different?"

The detective's eyes are wet. "She was, Alex, I swear. She's was doing so well, her system completely cleared the kryptonite twenty minutes ago and she was okay, she was sleeping and—"

Alex freezes. "Say that again."

She faces Maggie. Keeps her hand on Kara's always, always, always.

"She was sleeping?"

"No, no, no, Maggie, the kryptonite has been inside her this whole time?"

Maggie nods, looks to the lead doctors for confirmation. They nod, pausing.

Alex looks at Dr. Hamilton. "And she was looking better?"

"It's true."

The door is thrown open, clashes against the wall.

Lena and Winn come in, red faced and panting. Lena holds up a picture on her phone, taken through a microscope.

"The bacteria is photoautotrophic, in a weird, mutated way but for all current and necessary purposes we can consider it photoautotrophic," Lena says through a gasping breath. "I was wrong, the sunlamps weren't a catalyst for a reaction; they're how the bacteria were surviving."

"Holy shit," Alex looks between the pair and Kara, brushes back her sister's soaked hair, hand calm and cool against the thrashing body. "I know how to fix this."


	4. Chapter 4

“I need to take her,” Alex says to the doctors. “There’s no time, I know my sister’s physiology. This is our only chance.”

Dr. Hamilton steps back, motions for the others to do the same. “What can we do? You make the calls, Agent Danvers.”

Alex nods gratefully. “Help me get Kara on a stretcher, we need to get her to the basement.”

She’s moved, sweating through the sheets and mumbling in Kryptonese—words that Alex knows don’t go together, words that are sharp and pained between strangled breaths.

“The Kryptonian DNA in the sample wasn’t a mistake,” Alex says as they roll Kara’s stretcher down the hall. “The cell is mutated to mimic Kryptonian bacteria, that’s why it didn’t match any of samples I had… that’s why the kryptonite made Kara better at first; it was killing the bacteria.”

“So we give her more kryptonite?” Lena asks, calling from behind the stretcher. “Why do we have to move her?”

Alex shakes her head as they squeeze into the elevator. “She can’t handle anymore, her body is too weak. But the bacteria… autotrophic and mimicking Kryptonian cells? It needs sunlight to survive, the bacteria’s been taking it from Kara’s cells, making her weak and simultaneously triggering an immune response with the infection.”

“So no sunlight, no bacteria? It’ll die?” Maggie asks, yelling over the clang of the stretcher against metal as they shift it out of the elevator and into an underground corridor.

“In theory, yes. And their life cycle is short, so hopefully depriving them of sunlight for a few hours will be good enough and then all Kara’s body has to do is fight off what’s left of the infection and its symptoms,” Alex says, pausing outside the door to an empty storage room. “Listen, what she’s about to do might be dangerous. I want you guys to wait outside, so you don’t get hurt by accident.”

Dr. Hamilton nods, pulls her team aside and tells Alex to call out if they’re needed, but Lena and Maggie push on, follow into the room.

“I’m staying,” Lena says.

“Me too,” Maggie adds before Alex can protest.

She’s about to say something anyway when Kara lets out a sharp cry, tightening the arm around her stomach as her lungs wheeze. “Come on,” Alex says, tilting her head further into the room and closing the door behind them.

“But leave the lights off, I don’t want to risk even the smallest amount of UV rays for these first few hours, we’ll just use a flashlight. Stay to the side,” she says before turning back to Kara. “Hey, Kara, I know you can hear me, okay? I need you to listen, can you do that?”

Kara twists, murmurs in Kryptonese and Alex replies back in foreign tongue before switching to English. “No, no, no Kara, you need to solar flare.”

“Can’t,” she mumbles weakly and Lena can barely make out the words. “No strength.”

“The bacteria are using the light absorbed by your cells to make themselves stronger, to reproduce, while they take away your powers and make you weaker. The infection is only going to get worse, Kar, you need to do this now.”

“ _Alex,”_ she whimpers.

“I know.” Alex sinks in front of her sister, kneeling and taking Kara’s hand in her own. With the other she brushes back blonde hair and Kara closes her eyes, tears leaking out of the corners. “I know you’re miserable and I know everything hurts and trust me if I could do this instead of you, I would, but I can’t, Kara. It has to be you.”

There’s a knock on the door and J’onn appears. “Dr. Hamilton told me your plan, this will help.” He raises a small black box towards her. “It can absorb her heat vision, minimize the destruction.”

“Thank you,” Alex says and he nods.

“Thank you for keeping your head in this, Alex. You’ve done well. We’ll get a room set up with lightning that doesn’t give off any UV rays, I have agents on it now,” he says and turns to Kara. “It’s time to finish the job, Supergirl. We all know you can do it.”

He squeezes Kara’s hand and closes the door behind him.

“All right, Kar, just focus and go as fast as you can.”

Alex hands Kara the small box and seeks out Maggie’s face in the darkness. She catches her gaze, illuminated by only dim light pooling in from the bottom of the door, sends a smile Alex’s way and nods.

Alex gives a shaky smiles back and turns to Kara, helping her sit up. “On the count of three, ready?”

Kara pulls in a quivering breath. “Ready.”

“All right, one… two… _three…”_

It’s slow at first—heat vision that sparks and flickers, with progress that crawls as Kara whimpers against the pain.

Lena bites her lip, twists her fingers together.

Maggie grabs her shoulder. “It’s okay, she’ll be fine.”

“Come on, Kara,” Alex whispers. “Come on.”

The blonde’s grip around the rails of the stretcher dents the metal.

A stream of solar energy bursts forward; an unrelenting torrent to Kara’s cries.

The blue beams shift to white. The box shakes in front of her.

Kara’s wail turns sharper, morphs into a scream that makes Alex’s heart clench; and then, nothing.

Then, silence for a beat of her heart before the box falls, clatters against the ground and Kara slumps backward.

Then, Alex rushes forward catches Kara’s head before it can slam against the stretcher, gently lowers it instead. “No powers, right?”

Kara shakes her head. “Nothing.”

“Good job, Kara,” Alex says, can’t help but pull her sister back up and into a hug, holding Kara so they’re pressed together and her worried tears finally fall, drip into blonde hair. “You did so well. The bacteria are going to die soon without the light in your cells to use, we’ll run a test in a few hours to make sure it’s safe. You might feel a little worse before you get better, now that you’ve solar flared, but pretty soon it will all be uphill.  We’ll give you a few days of recovery without sunlamps and hang out here for a bit, but it’s okay, you’re going to be okay.”

Kara nods, curls a sleepy fist around Alex’s hair. “Stay?” she asks and nothing in Alex’s world could ever make her say no.

“Sure,” she says, shifts to move them but Kara’s already asleep in her arms, her last view the softly lit faces of Maggie and Lena behind Alex, smiling gently.

“I’ll go grab you two some blankets and pillows and see if we can get an actual bed from the med wing in here,” Maggie says. As she leans over she sees the tears on Alex’s cheeks, presses gentle kisses against them. “She’s okay, Alex, you did it.” Maggie tilts back, smiles at Lena. “You guys both did.”

Alex nods, wiping her cheek with a hand over Kara’s back. “Thanks, Maggie. I’ll see you in a sec,” Alex says and Maggie nods, kisses her head one more time and ruffles Kara’s hair before disappearing.

Lena lingers a moment longer, hovering near the edge of the stretcher. She reaches out a hand, wavering for a second before running her fingers over Kara’s hair. Lena looks toward Alex, smiling when the older woman gives her a nod.

“You did well, too, Luthor. We couldn’t have done this without you.”

Lena swallows and her voice is thick with emotion, a quivering whisper in the dimly lit room. “I care about her.”

The look Alex gives her is gentle and warm. “I know. She cares about you, too.”

Lena looks like she’s about to say something when the door to the room bursts open and Maggie waves around some blankets, pillows tucked beneath her arms. They set them up on the bed that Dr. Hamilton wheels in behind her, help move Kara. And Alex keeps the blonde close, never lets the grip on her sister break, not as the medical staff flit in and out, begin necessary tests; not when J’onn comes in to check up on things or Eliza calls

They wait, for time to heal Kara, for the tests to come back.

They wait, and Alex holds her sister close.

 

 

 

 


	5. Bonus Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Followup where everyone is safe and mostly happy but still a little worried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I received requests on ff.net for a followup chapter to this story and since I wrote one, I figured I'd go ahead and upload it here, too. :)

“Hey, pretty girl,” Alex says, swinging around the doorframe and entering Kara’s room in the DEO med bay, two days after they’d had Kara intentionally blow her powers. “How are you feeling?” The brunette asks.

Kara blinks blearily, shifting herself upwards in bed and rubbing a loose fist across her eyes. “Huh?” she murmurs.

“Sorry, Kar, I didn’t know you were sleeping,” Alex says and steps over to the computers, begins reviewing Kara’s stats and most recent tests.

“S’okay. What’d you ask?”

Alex smiles fondly and turns back towards her sister. “I asked how you were feeling.” The agent says. The mattress dips slightly as she slides onto it, brushes back Kara’s hair. “I know things got rough for a while yesterday but you’re looking a little better.”

Kara nods, reaching out for Alex, wanting something tangible and warm, wanting the safety her sister always provides. She settles against Alex, curling her arms around the woman and snuggling toward her. Alex reciprocates the hug, pulling Kara closer and knowing this clinginess will last until Kara’s feeling herself again—once the fatigue and nausea and lingering fever pass, and it’s safe to help her powers return; once the nightmares and cold sweats diminish and fade. Until then she’ll just keep holding her tight, for as long as she needs.

Alex can’t help but share in some of the clinginess, too. Can’t help the fact that having Kara in her line of sight, pressed at her side, quells the panic she feels twisting in her stomach when images of Kara shaking and crying surface in her head.

“I feel good enough to go home,” Kara says, looking up at Alex with a grin. “I’m tired, but only a little. Other than that I feel fine, I feel _great_ even.”

“Mhmm, that’s why you were sick yesterday and slept fourteen hours today, _so far_ ,” Alex says raising her brows. “And you’re still running a fever.”

Kara shrugs, gives a sheepish smile. “I feel ready to go home, please, Alex. If we’re just waiting out the rest of this, let me wait it out somewhere comfy. You could stay over if you wanted. We could have a movie night! Bring Maggie. I haven’t seen her in forever. Every time she comes by I’m sleeping,” Kara tilts her head against Alex, looking up at her again with wide eyes. “ _Please_ just get me out of here. I’m bored and I’d sleep better at home and honestly I still don’t feel super great because I don’t have my powers and it would all be easier if I weren’t here _.”_

Alex sighs. “I’m only saying yes because your stats are improving at a good rate and I already consulted with Dr. Hamilton and got her approval, too.”

“So I can go?!” Kara sits up, a smile lighting up her features, nearly tripping herself as she tries to get out of the bed and stand.

“Slow down, hot shot,” Alex says, putting a hand on Kara’s shoulder and pushing her back down until she sits on the edge of the mattress, swallowed by the hospital gown and kicking her feet back and forth as they dangled over the floor; looking every bit of the thirteen year old she was when Alex first met her.

Kara just sits smiling, eyebrows raised expectantly.

“I’m staying over for a few days to keep an eye on you and we’re coming to the DEO for full check-ups at least every two days, okay?”

Kara nods. “Anything else?”

Alex shakes her head.

“Good,” Kara smiles, leans into Alex. “Text Maggie.”

Alex smiles and pulls Kara closer. “I will. Should we go pick up that _best friend_ of yours from the lab before we leave.”

“Lena’s still here?! Rao, what’s she been doing?”

“Going over your test results again and again and again, deconstructing the parts of the bullet we pulled out of you, studying the bacteria…. A lot actually.”

Kara sighs and nestles into Alex’s shoulder. “She works too much.”

Alex laughs. “She does. Now are you ready to get out of here?”

Kara nods. Her legs wobble as she stands, the cold tile pressing through her thin socks and the room spinning just a bit. “To Lena!” she declares anyway, raising her arm forward and shifting toward the door, instead she slips and Alex’s hands are around her shoulder in a minute, pulling her back up.

“And then… to the couch!” Alex says, grinning as she lifts the pitch of her voice to imitate Kara. “So you can sleep for _another_ fourteen hours.”

“Yay,” Kara deadpans and even though she grumbles, she lets Alex tug her close, leans heavily into her sister’s side as they walk to the lab.

/

“Hey Danvers,” Maggie says when she gets home, setting down bags of food on the counter and pressing up on her tiptoes to kiss Alex. “Missed you.”

Alex smiles, big and bright. “You too,” she says.

“Little Luthor, always a pleasure.” Maggie nods and winks. “But I’m surprised anyone actually got you out of the lab, kind of thought we weren’t going to see you again.”

Lena laughs. “Kara used her puppy eyes,” Alex says. “That, and she refused to leave unless Lena came, too and Kar looked like she was going to fall asleep right there on the spot if we didn’t get moving.”

Lena nods in agreement. “It was for Kara’s sake.”

“Mhmm. Speaking of, where is that girl?” Maggie asks, pulling out boxes of pizza. “I still haven’t had a real conversation with her after everything happened.”

“Asleep on the couch,” Alex says as she shuffles through Kara’s kitchen cabinets for plates and cups. “But I should get her up soon, she needs to eat something.”

“I can do it,” Maggie says, disappearing around the counter and toward the living room. Affection swells in her chest as she sees Kara sprawled across the couch, lying on her stomach with her face shoved into cushion, breathing softly.

Kara wakes to gentle fingers rubbing circles on her back. “ _Alex,”_ she groans. “ ‘m tir’d go ‘way.”

“Not Alex.”

The blonde twists her head around, keeping the rest of her body tucked against the couch, and opens one eye to peek through a curtain of mused hair.

“Maggie?!” she asks, voice soft and lilting.

“Yeah, I- _oh.”_ She’s cut off by Kara lurching off the couch, throwing her arms around Maggie and hugging her tightly. “Hey, kid,” she says through a soft laugh as she runs her thumb over Kara’s shoulder blade.

“Sorry,” Kara says, blushing slightly and starting to pull back.

“Oh no, absolutely no apologizing, Little Danvers,” Maggie says, tugging Kara back into the embrace and swaying back and forth for a second.

The detective feels Kara smile against her shoulder. “I just missed you and I didn’t get to say thank you for sticking with me when all of that went down.”

“Of course,” Maggie says, looking a little like she might cry as she leans back so she can see Kara. She runs a hand over blonde hair. “And I didn’t get to yell at you for scaring the shit of me, and your sister, and just about every other person in National City and then some.”

Kara smiles sheepishly. “Sorry?”

“Let’s just agree that you avoid bullets in the future whenever possible.”

“No promises,” Kara says and Maggie groans, offering Kara a hand and pulling her up into a standing position.

“Oh, and Kara?” Maggie says as they turn to face the kitchen where Lena and Alex are engaged in their nerdy science talk, hands gesturing animatedly. Maggie shifts, dropping her gaze and twisting her fingers together. “You took that bullet for Alex, which was stupid and brave and so selfless, and I have to thank you for being the reason my fiancée is still here today. But I also have to let you know, that you’re… you’re like my little sister, Kara… You know, I couldn’t stand to lose you either.” Maggie’s voice cracks on the last syllable and oh, if she wasn’t crying before she definitely is now.

She wipes her cheeks harshly and Kara hugs her again. “Maggie, I love you, and you’re a really good big sister, okay?”

Maggie laughs, wipes her eyes one more time and the tears are gone. “Thanks. I love you too, Little Danvers. And I think you’re going to love me even more when you see that I brought your favorite soup from Noonan’s.”

“Really?!” Kara’s eyes light up and she looks over Maggie’s shoulder into the kitchen. “Oh my Rao, you did! Come on,” she says, tugging Maggie forward and out of the living room.

/

Kara convinces them to eat on the couch and somehow, with significantly more pouting and pleading, she convinces them to put on _Rent_ for movie night, too. With Lena next to Kara and Alex pressed against her other side, and Maggie only an arm’s length away, Kara lets out a content sigh, sinking into the back of the couch.

She gets a quarter of the way through her soup before she lets the spoon clang against the edge, shifts under Alex’s grip so she can slide the bowl onto the coffee table, trading its warmth for fully snuggling up against her sister instead. Alex opens up her arm, receives Kara into her side with a soft kiss against her temple and dips her head against Kara’s.

“I love you,” Alex whispers an hour and a half later, voice warm as she rubs Kara’s shoulder.

“I love you, too,” Kara says, tilting her head back and looking up at Alex. “I think we’re the only ones awake, I might have worn you guys out over the past few days.”

Alex’s features sober. “Kara, you have no idea how worried I’ve been… how worried _we’ve_ been.” Her voice falls thick with emotion as she buries her nose in Kara’s hair, exhales shakily. “Lena literally didn’t leave the lab and Maggie’s been at the precinct following up and working every angle, trying to see if there’s any information on Lillian’s whereabouts, and I… I, well…” She trails off into a shrug and Kara hears the indicative crack in Alex’s words connoting that she’s about to cry; feels it when the first droplet falls into her hair.

“Well you haven’t left my side,” Kara finishes for her sister, shifts upward so they’re eye to eye. The blonde reaches out, gently brushes tears from Alex’s cheeks and feels them stinging down her own.  

“Kara, you took a bullet for me,” Alex says, a quiet sob cracking from inside her chest. “A kryptonite bullet that you _knew_ could kill you.”

“What else was I supposed to do?” Kara says softly. “You’re my sister, I couldn’t live without you.”

“Well I feel the same way about you, Kar. And the world… the world couldn’t live without Supergirl, it’s more important that you-“

Kara shakes her head, blonde hair shaking across her back. The movement makes her a little dizzy but she forces her eyes to stay open, takes Alex’s hand in her own. “No. I don’t want to hear you talking like that at all—like… like I’m somehow more significant, like my survival is more important than yours, like-”

Alex pulls her hand away, runs it through her hair. “But it _is,_ Kara, you’re a superhero.”

“But I wouldn’t be if it weren’t for you!” Kara exclaims, bolting upright. Beside her Lena stirs, murmuring sleepily and Kara freezes, waits for Lena to curl back into the couch before the blonde looks at her sister. “Listen, Alex, I don’t want to fight, _please._ But I just want to say that you are everything to me and you are everything to Maggie and you are _so_ much more important than you realize. I would take any bullet for you, always.”

Alex shakes her head, brushes away more tears that drip down her cheeks as she stands. “I was just so s-scared, seeing you there like that, Kara, it was awful.”

“I know,” Kara says. “I’m sorry it happened like that.”

“I’m just glad you’re safe.” Alex pulls Kara back into another hug, feels her trembling under the touch. “You’re shaking, come on, you said it yourself… no fighting, okay? Let’s just snuggle.”

“I can agree to that,” Kara says with a soft smile, lets Alex lead her back onto the couch and tucks into the brunette’s side, smiles softly at Lena’s sleeping form, and Maggie’s, as the detective gravitates subconsciously back to Alex as soon as she’s on the couch again. Kara dips her head onto Alex’s shoulder, lets her sister’s warmth and steady heartbeat lure her eyes closed; let’s her sister’s presence envelope and ground her—just like she’s done a thousand times before, just like she’ll do a thousand times again—this time with two more people snuggled up on her couch. It’s what she takes bullets for.

It’s all she really needs.

 


End file.
